Why is Albert Alligator so happy? Because the second volume of Walt Kelly's Pogo reprints is coming out and so is this lovely slipcase in which folks can house their copies of Volume 1 and Volume 2. The case was designed by Carolyn Kelly, co-editor of the series and daughter of her father. You'd be happy too if there were a slipcase for two lovely hardcover books of a great newspaper strip that you were in. (Trust me. You would.)
Now, this of course has you asking yourself, "How do I get one of those lovely slipcases?" And you may also be thinking you have to buy Volume 1 and Volume 2 together even though you already have a copy of Volume 1. Well, it wouldn't be the stupidest thing you could do to order the two books and give your copy of Volume 1 to an as-yet unenlightened friend. Here is a link to pre-order Volume 1 and Volume 2 in the slipcase from its publisher, Fantagraphics Books. In the not-too-distant future, we'll probably have an Amazon link that will give you this at a slightly lower price but you don't want to wait for that.
Or if you have Volume 1 and don't want another copy but do want the slipcase, order Volume 2 direct from Fantagraphics and for a limited time only (they say), your Volume 2 will come with the slipcase into which you can insert the copy of Volume 1 you already lovingly possess. If you don't want the slipcase, you can save a little cash by placing your pre-order for Volume 2 through this Amazon link.
So then: You may be wondering when Volume 2 will be available at all. Albert certainly would like to know. The publisher informs me that copies should be reaching distributor warehouses by Halloween…so they'll show up at comic shops and mail-orders will be shipping around the third week of November. This is ahead of schedule…so after the long delays on Volume 1, Pogo is now early! Even if it were late though, it's well worth waiting for. This is some of the best material ever to appear in newspaper strip format…or anything resembling comic art for that matter. Try it and see if you don't dance like Albert, probably even wearing a similar outfit!